This invention is concerned with moving means for use in a glassware manufacturing machine for moving an operative member such as a blowhead, a funnel or a baffle.
In a glassware manufacturing machine of the so-called "individual section" type, the need arises to move operative members between out-of-the-way positions thereof and operative positions thereof in which the operative member is in alignment with an opening of a mould cavity of a mould of the machine. For example, the machine comprises a blank mould in which parisons are formed and it is necessary to move a funnel into alignment with the mould opening so that it can guide a gob of molten glass into the mould cavity and then into an out-of-the-way position to allow a baffle to be positioned on the mould. The same situation arises with regard to the baffle in relation to the blank mould and with regard to a blowhead in relation to a blow mould in which the parisons formed in the blank mould are blown into containers, the blowhead supplying the blowing air when in its operative position.
Conventional moving means for moving such an operative member in an individual section type machine comprises a piston and cylinder assembly having a vertically extending piston rod which projects in both directions from the piston. One end portion of the piston rod carries a horizontally extending arm on which the operative member is mounted. The other end of the piston rod carries a cam which is engaged in a spiral cam track. The arrangement is such that, when the piston and cylinder assembly is operated, the piston rod moves vertically causing the operative member to also move vertically. As this movement takes place, the cam track causes the piston rod to turn about its longitudinal axis thereby swinging the arm and the operative member about this axis. The operative member is thus moved in a movement which has a rotary component about the vertical longitudinal axis of the rod and a linear component in a vertical direction.
The conventional moving means described above has the disadvantage that it is not possible to vary the time relationship of the rotary and vertical components of the movement since the point reached on the arc through which the operative member moves is directly dependent on the point reached in the vertical movement. It is an object of the present invention to provide moving means in which the time relationship of the rotary and vertical components can be varied during the operation of the machine.